As you might know, almost all followers of Hinduism live in India, and
no wonder the world's largest Hindu temple is situated in the capital of
India.

Speaking of Delhi landmarks, one would traditionally mention Red Fort,
Qutub Minar, and India Gate on Kingsway. So how come Swaminarayan
Akshardham (which means "temple of the God"), a magnificent and
beautiful temple, is not so famous? The answer is simple: it is very
"young".

It was opened in 2005. The construction took over 5 years and involved 7
thousand artisans and 3 thousand construction workers from all over
India. Their combined efforts gave birth to a building 42 meters high,
94 meters wide, and 106 meters long. The structure of Akshardham
consists of 234 pillars, 9 shiny domes, 20 four-sided towers, and over
20 thousand figurines depicting themes from Indian mythology. There are
over 148 statues of an elephant alone!

Elephants

All the facing was done by hand. Outer surface of the temple is faced
with pink sandstone, while the inner surface is faced with white marble.
In India, pink color symbolizes love for God, and white color symbolizes
absolute purity and peace.

Thanks to its enormous size the temple is included in the Guinness Book
of World Records. The temple complex takes up 12 hectares of land and
includes the temple itself, several parks, a museum, a large cultural
center where one can learn about Indian traditions and customs, water
canals, which you can traverse by boats, and lots of cafes and souvenir
shops.

Every evening there is a laser show with dancing fountains on
Swaminarayan Akshardham grounds. The fountains are built in the form of
a lotus placed inside a large bowl-shaped basin. The inner side of the
basin serves as steps and benches for thousands of viewers.

Lotus park

Construction of this beautiful site was funded by donations and done
through a spirit of volunterism. In order to fill in all man-made lakes
and canals surrounding the temple required huge supply of water from 151
ponds around the country. In a country, where clean water is as precious
as gold, it was quite a generous donation as well.

Let's take a moment and listen to Stas Sedov's story about the photo
shoot.

During last days of our trip across India we planned to shoot several
sights in the capital of the country: Red Fort, Qutub Minar, and others.
We didn't plan to photograph Swaminarayan Akshardham. We knew that we
couldn't even bring a cell phone inside the temple, not to mention other
heavy photo equipment. However, our success in Taj Mahal encouraged us
to request a photo permit for Swaminarayan Akshardham.

When we entered the temple first time we had only one document in our
hands: photography permit for Delhi and Taj Mahal. At the time we were
not sure what to expect, but we decided to take our chances anyway. Even
if we failed with a permit, at least we would see a new wonder of the
world.

The next thing we know, we are talking to the middle-age man from the
local administration. It's hard to remember what exactly we were talking
about, but we got him interested in our project. At the moment he didn't
give us a definite answer. But he did ask us to give him time to see if
it was possible to get permit for aerial photography. Meanwhile he
assigned a guide to give us a half-hour tour around museums and the
temple grounds.

To tell you the truth, I didn't know of Swaminarayan Akshardham
existence. For me it was just another Indian temple. But that was before
I entered its premises...

Akshardham

Usually, at the end of every trip, when almost every day you see wonders
of nature and artisan masterpieces, your emotions get "washed out". It
is very unlikely that something would be able to surprise you. But this
was an exception! To say that I was surprised is to say nothing! I was
smitten by the grandeur of the idea and its magnificent implementation
in stone. It's hard to describe the range of feelings you experience
while walking the grounds of Swaminarayan Akshardham. You feel harmony,
tranquility, and strength of your spirit. The only time I experienced
something similar was during my visit to the Meteora monasteries in
Greece.

Our guide told us that the temple has no iron elements in its structure,
and no cement. The concrete was used only in the foundation. The rest
was made of stone. Marble and granite for the construction was delivered
from all over the world. It was processed using special technology, and
then joint together. All pillars of the temple are stacked, and all
stone elements are turned 90 degrees after being connected. It was done
to provide seismic resistance in case of earthquakes, which sometimes
happen in India. Imagine the level of precision required for stone
processing to assemble this big "puzzle".

Pillars

Beside the buildings' structure, wall facing is quite impressive: stone
figurines cover the walls all around! The size of the carvings ranges
greatly: from actual size to palm size, but even the smallest figurines
have the highest level of detail.

The time of our excursion flew by. I was heading toward the exit, but
felt confident that we would be back here.

We were called the following evening and granted the permit to
photograph Swaminarayan Akshardham. Our first photo session was
scheduled early in the morning, just before the site opens for tourists.
Pigeons, flying in the morning sky, quickly welcomed our RC helicopter
to their flock.

It was the most comfortable photo session we had in India: both by the
atmosphere and the working process. Everything indeed went very
smoothly. The temple security arranged an area for us in the center of
the alley for the night shooting. The temple lighting was switched on 15
minutes earlier than usual especially for our photo shoot. We just
couldn't do a bad job in these perfect conditions.

Arkshardham at night

Leaving premises I realized that I had just completed my most important
photo shoot in India. It wasn't Taj Mahal that won me over in this
extraordinary and amazing country, but Swaminarayan Akshardham! I truly
hope to return to this temple one more time someday.